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Corriente de chorro intensa impulsa a aviones infographic
El gráfico muestra récords de vuelos subsónicos transatlánticos comerciales.
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AVIACIÓN

Una corriente de chorro más rápida está impulsando a aviones a velocidades casi récord

By Ninian Carter

January 28, 2025 - Tormentas alimentadas por una corriente de chorro cada vez más fuerte en el Atlántico Norte, vinculadas al cambio climático según se cree, han llevado a algunos vuelos transatlánticos comerciales recientes a velocidades que casi han roto récord.

Storms, such as Éowyn in January, are being fuelled by an increasingly strong North Atlantic jet stream, which is speeding up as a direct result of climate change.

Recent years have seen numerous commercial passenger aircraft piggy-backing on these currents to reach unheard of speeds.

The North Atlantic jet stream flows west to east, and in winter often becomes faster, creating more storms.

Since supersonic Concorde retired in 2003, no commercial passenger jet can fly faster than the speed of sound (1,192km/h (740mph)) – unless it rides the jet stream – today’s passenger jets having a cruising speed of 960km/h (600mph).

The current record holder is a United Airlines Boeing 787, which attained a speed of 1,344km/h (835mph) on a flight from New York to Lisbon on February 17, 2024.

That is beyond the speed of sound and much faster than the plane can actually fly. However, the aircraft maintained its normal cruising speed, relative to the air outside it, it’s just that the air around it was the jet stream, and it was moving at hundreds of kilometres an hour itself.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 28/01/2025; STORY: Graphic News
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